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thargelia

A bit of a belated note, but here I did have a lovely thargelia. On the 6th day of Thargelion (May 20th) I gave many prayers to Artemis, though this year I did not make the pharmakos. My craftiness has been restricted a bit living in this crowded household to the point that I couldn’t even make the thargelos this year. I have never been in such a tight situation so it is a bit dismaying. However, on the 20th I did recieve a large bun of cinammon and raisins that almost seemed to be something like an impromptu thargelos substitution (in a very vague way). So it did serve as such for this year. Ironically the spiral of the bun coincided with the dance I did during the ritual for Apollon on the 7th day of Thargelion (May 21). I was inspired by the description of Plutarch of the dance of Delos taught to them by Theseus as he was returning from Crete that supposedly mimicked the movement through the labyrinth, a pathway moving toward the center.

Now if you are like me and see Apollon as the leader and road builder to the way of Dionysos, and as the mousegod he is also protector of the vine, the imagery of the labyrinth dance makes sense in connection to Apollon. For this reason I also ended the evening in watching the movie Pan’s Labyrinth. The orphic hymn is lovely in its wording when you read it carefully. I swear parts of it just reached out and grabbed at me to where I felt a sort of twisting around me in my mind. When I was reading of the stars in the darkness and the roots of the earth I had a twisting flash of going down into the center of the heart of tree, to the root. It was quite facinating. It was a very profound experience for me while I was reading the hymn.

As I said, I did perform a sort of labyrinth dance. I was going to mark it on a posterboard but I decided that I can keep track of it well enough without everything marked out. So with my lyre in hand (and actually the thrumming was almost hypnotic for me as I turned tighter and tighter into the center and then out again. I wish I knew the dance of the Crane that was part of the celebration on Delos, but this for me works well enough I think. It was almost like energy turning tighter inside of me and yet a sense of inner settling and peacefulness as I worked my way toward the center, like I was working my way to the very center of myself. And once found unwound again.

I do have some pics that I will post tommorow when I finally get them off of my camera (procrastination on my part I am afraid). Also I did begin thargelia as a sort of pivital point in my life on two accounts. The publication of my book was made available on that day.. something I am very proud of as a community resource, and also for my personal health I began to more vigorously exercise. I haven’t ridden a bicycle in 12 years since I was hit by a truck that ruined my bicycle in my youth. Though muscles I had forgotten that I had are protesting loudly, there is a sense of something reclaimed inside of me that is hard to describe.

Next year I am definitely going to have my own kitchen again and make that pharmakos and the thargelos! After a great ritual I had this time, that can only make it all the better!

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2 thoughts on “thargelia”

Thanks, Lykeia, for the beautiful description. The dance sounds fascinating and am waiting for the pics. As mentioned previously, I saved the actual rituals for the weekend, so yesterday I burned pharmakoi ‘cookies’ and did ritual for Artemis. Later today, Apollo. For these big holidays I use an outdoor altar in addition to the indoor altar-table with the Olympian lamps. It is just fabulous to make offerings out-of-doors. When finished with the ritual, a nice dinner.

Thanks! It wasn’t as much as I wanted to do, and it was difficult in the small space that I had available to do it. I am going to be quite happy when I have an apartment again so I have appropriate space needed for my rituals instead of a partial room lol. The dance would have been better with more space that is for sure!